DeVry NR447 all week discussions
Week 1 discussion
The Affordable Care Act
Healthcare reform is a term that is ever present in our practice settings and will not disappear any time soon.
Share with the class implementation of the Affordable Care Act in your organization. (If you are not working as a nurse, think about what was happening when you were a prelicensure student).
How did your fellow healthcare workers react to implementation of the ACA?
How were citizens in your community impacted?
Week 2 discussion
AACN Essentials Self-Assessment and Patient-Centered Care
Week 2: The AACN Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional NursingSelf-Assessment
Understanding the competencies related to the AACN Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice provides you with valuable information as you begin to study this course.
Complete this self-assessment, which is based on The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (2008) prior to posting to the discussion on this topic
Place a check mark or X in the column that best describes your current level of competency or understanding of the Essential’s statement. There are no incorrect answers.
After you have completed the assessment, total the number of points that you earned. Record this number in a location where you will be able to retrieve it at the end of the course, when it will serve as the basis for a future discussion.
AACN (American Association of Colleges of Nursing) Baccalaureate Essentials Poor
1 Good
2 Very Good
3 Excellet
Essential II: Basic Organizational and Systems Leadership for Quality Care and Patient Safety
Apply leadership concepts, skills, and decision-making in the provision of high qualitynursing care, healthcare team coordination, and the oversight and accountability for care delivery in a variety of settings.
Demonstrate leadership and communication skills to effectively implement patientsafety and quality improvement initiatives within the context of the interprofessional team.
Participate in quality and patient safety initiatives, recognizing that these are complex systemissues, which involve individuals, families, groups, communities, populations, and other members of the healthcare team.
Employ principles of quality improvement, healthcare policy, and cost-effectiveness to assist in the development and initiation of effective plans for the microsystem and system-wide practice improvements that will improve the quality of healthcare delivery.
Essential V: Healthcare Policy, Finance, and Regulatory Environments
Demonstrate basic knowledge of healthcare policy, finance, and regulatory environments, including local, state, national, and global healthcare trends.
Explore the impact of sociocultural, economic, legal, and political factors influencing healthcare delivery and practice.
Examine the roles and responsibilities of the regulatory agencies and their effect on patient care quality, workplace safety, and the scope of nursing and other health professionals’ practice.
Advocate for consumers and the nursing profession.
Essential VI: Interprofessional Communication and Collaboration for Improving Patient Health Outcomes
Use inter and intrarofessional communication and collaborative skills to deliver evidence-based, patient-centered care.
Incorporate effective communication techniques, including negotiation and conflict resolution to produce positive professional working relationships.
Demonstrate appropriate teambuilding and collaborative strategies when working with interprofessional teams.
Advocate for high-quality and safe patient care as a member of the interprofessional team
Essential VIII: Professionalism and Professional Values
Demonstrate the professional standards of moral, ethical, and legal conduct.
Promote the image of nursing by modeling the values and articulating the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of the nursing profession.
Reflect on one’s own beliefs and values as they relate to professional practice.
Articulate the value of pursuing practice excellence, lifelong learning, and professional engagement to foster professional growth and development.
Total for each column
Grand total (add all columns)
Source: American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). (2008). The essentials of baccalaureate education for professional nursing practice. Washington, DC: AACN. Retrieved from http://www.aacn.nche.edu/education-resources/baccessentials08.pdf/
After you have completed your self-assessment, answer the following questions:
If you are willing, please share your total score on the AACN Essentials Self-Assessment. If you do not wish to share your score, give a general description of your current KSA levels.
Candidly identify and share with your classmates areas where knowledge, skills or abilities (KSAs) are lacking?
Describe the relationship between the AACN Essentials and your new-found knowledge about Patient Centered Care. Are there opportunities for you to improve?
Week 3 discussion
Conflict and Collaboration
Please watch the video and listen to the dialogue before posting.
Second Life Video (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Transcript (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
At times the needs of our families conflict with our work responsibilities. Could this possibly be the underlying issue here?
Explain the conflict resolution skills displayed by the leader in the scenario. On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate those of the leader.
How might earlier collaboration have been beneficial?
Some organizations utilize non Registered Nurses in the Case Manager role. What additional skills, knowledge and attributes would the BSN-prepared Registered Nurse bring to case management in this scenario?
Week 4 discussion
Transformational Nursing Leaders
Review Appendix A, Sections I–V in Finkelman (2016).
Select one of the sections and share how your chief nurse executive demonstrates expertise in these competencies. Your comments should be about the “highest nursing leader” in your organization. Typically this is the leader who represents nurses and nursing to the governing board.
In your own words, explain the differences between a transactional nursing leader and a transformational nursing leader. What one is more like your Nurse Executive?
Describe how the Nurse Executive “leads the charge” for transformational leadership in an organization where you work or have done prelicensure clinical experiences.
Week 5 discussion
Patient Outcomes
Review the story at the link below before posting to the discussion:
Rau, J. (2015). Half of nation’s hospitals fail again to escape Medicare’s readmission penalties. Kaiser Health News. Retrieved from http://khn.org/news/half-of-nations-hospitals-fail-again-to-escape-medicares-readmission-penalties/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
After you have finished, consider how you would respond to the following situation:
Your local hospital has received notice from CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid) regarding their readmission rates.
As a BSN prepared nurse, you have been asked to serve as a consultant to suggest a new Quality (Performance) Improvement process for ONE of the areas of deficiency. Write some brief steps (suggestions) for improvement as you contemplate accepting the consulting opportunity.
Share practice improvements utilized from your own clinical nursing experiences that have led to enhanced patient outcomes.
Week 6 discussion
Civility in the Workplace
Complete the Clark Workplace Civility Index Assessment (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..
After you are finished, read the assigned article:
Lachman, V. D. (2015). Ethical issues in the disruptive behaviors of incivility, bullying, and horizontal/lateral violence. Urologic Nursing, 35(1), 39-42. Retrieved from http://proxy.chamberlain.edu:8080/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=c9h&AN=100927729&site=eds-live&scope=site (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Next watch the video by clicking on the link below.
Video (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Transcript (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Reflect on what you observed in the video as you answer the following:
Based on what you observed, what leadership skills should you, as Masaya’s preceptor, model for your fellow coworkers to promote his acceptance into the work-group or team.
Does incivility seem to be an issue in the scenario?
Describe any common themes you discovered among the article, the video and the Civility Index
Share how you may improve your score on the index based on what you have read.
Week 7 discussion
Our Future Leaders
In Huston’s (2010) brief, but impressive article (required reading this week), the author outlines several leadership competencies that EVERY nurse leader will need for 2020. That year is not too far in the future, is it?
Select one of the eight leadership competencies Huston described and relate it to your own leadership of nurses and nursing. This should promote a robust discussion as we come from different clinical and nonclinical perspectives.
Discuss how the BSN-prepared nurse can assist a nurse leader in the budgeting process by contributing data readily available to the staff nurse.
Huston, C. (2010). What skills will the nurse leaders of 2020 need? (2010). Kai Tiaki Nursing New Zealand, 16(6), 14–15. Retrieved from http://proxy.chamberlain.edu:8080/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=105060080&site=ehost-live (Links to an external site.)
Week 8 discussion
Closing the Loop
Complete the Week 8 AACN Essentials Self-Assessment (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..
Compare your scores from Week 2 to Week 8.
Describe how far have you come and how much further do you wish to go in improving your competencies during the next two years of practice.
Next, review the Course Outcomes as listed in the Syllabus. Select one of the course outcomes and share with your classmates how you feel you have achieved the outcome and how you will utilize the essentials and course outcomes in your practice setting.
